The merger between legacy media giants Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps Co., announced Wednesday night, came as a surprise to almost everyone not involved in the negotiations, including employees at the Journal Broadcast Group radio and television stations and the Journal Sentinel. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article(1)

It's evidently power-pop season in Milwaukee, with Body Futures, the Midwestern Charm and Sugar Stems offering genre variations with their new albums. Then there's Drugs Dragons, whose abrasive new release doesn't have a single pop hook.

Point Fish Fry & a Flick

"Caddyshack": The quotable 1980 comedy is a mess, but it's got Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight and Bill Murray at his unhinged best. So you've got that going for you. Which is nice. Dusk Friday. Free. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article

1 + 1 doesn't always have to equal 2. But when the equation for a movie's plot is "mutant worms + tragic love story = unintended cultural insensitivity," most screenwriters might want to recheck their math.

Not writer-director Mike Cahill, whose gobbledygook cinematic algebra can't make up for the fact that he either never learned, or thinks he's beyond, the basics. As a result, Cahill's Me Generation reincarnation film "I Origins" will divide audiences without multiplying them. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article

Before Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger moonwalked and strutted across the stage, James Brown burst onto it propelled by hard times and his band the Famous Flames in equal measure.

His life story helps make "Get On Up" the hardest-working musical biopic in show business. It channels a muscular performance by Chadwick Boseman through a prismatic and almost impressionistically told collage of the traumatic, tortured and triumphant events in the hard times and rich life of the Godfather of Soul. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article

A bad decision here, a random event there can have life-altering, even life-ending, repercussions. We end up the sum total of our experiences, of all we did, and didn't do. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article(1)

There are no tours at Cross Plains Brewery. There's no tasting room. No fermenters or bright tanks. At most, there are a few bottles in the warehouse out back.

Larry and Wayne Esser run the brewery from a small building on a main road that passes through blink-and-you'd-miss-it Cross Plains. The family owns Esser's Best, which is brewed using a family recipe from 1853. | July 31, 2014»Read Full Article

WTMJ-AM (620) talk-radio host Charles Sykes called Journal Communications employees "children of divorce" in an interview with CEO and president Steven J. Smith to discuss the merger of the company's broadcast operations with E.W. Scripps and the spinning off the newspapers, including the Journal Sentinel, into a separate company.

Get your grub on the Old World 3rd Street Lunch Tour, which helps participants explore the sights and tastes of one of Milwaukee's most historic neighboods. The tour guide will share stories about Milwaukee's rich immigrant history. Sample flavors of German food, visit Milwaukee's oldest microbrewery and pay your respects to The Bronze Fonz statue. Tickets are available online for $50.